Baku concerned over current situation around Karabakh settlement

By AzerNews

Azerbaijan is concerned over the current situation around the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov voiced this position of Baku at the meeting with the co-chairs of the mediating OSCE Minsk Group on Saturday in Paris.

The co-chairs - Igor Popov of Russia, Jacques Faure of France and Ian Kelly of the United States - as well as the OSCE chairperson's personal representative Andrzej Kasprzyk attended the meeting, the Azerbaijani foreign ministry reported.

Mammadyarov emphasized the importance of withdrawal of the Armenian armed forces from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan for advance of the peace process, peace restoration and stability in whole region, noting that Armenia's non-constructive position hinders the conflict settlement.

In turn, the mediators once again noted the inadmissibility of the status quo in the region in connection with the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The meeting also noted the importance of continuing efforts in the conflict settlement.

Earlier, Mammadyarov said that the mediators had voiced several proposals on the conflict resolution during their last meeting in late January.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict emerged in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since a lengthy war in the early 1990s that displaced over one million Azerbaijanis, Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions. The UN Security Council has adopted four resolutions on Armenia's withdrawal from the Azerbaijani territory, but Armenia has not followed them to this day.

Russia, France and the U.S. - co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group - have long been working to broker a solution of the conflict, but their efforts have been largely fruitless so far.

Peace negotiations are underway on the basis of a peace outline proposed by the Minsk Group co-chairs and dubbed the Madrid Principles, also known as Basic Principles. The document envisions a return of the territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijani control; determining the final legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh; a corridor linking Armenia to the region; and the right of all internally displaced persons to return home.